Aside from businesses failing or restructuring to better compete and provide a better product or service to the public, capitalism certainly is not the cause of cities, states, and nations failing that we are starting to see around the globe including here in the United States. This has been triggered by the destructive debt loads that Governments have burdened their citizens with in order to buy favor, create entitlement, and to control economic outcomes to serve their own purposes. Another way of stating this is Governments encumber their citizens with debt to facilitate their objective of controlling and subjugating them so that bureaucrats can determine the outcomes in society according to their preferences. This practice continues to the point of insolvency thus being unable to pay debt back or borrow more, and this is of no concern to politicians as long as their power and control are maintained in the process. The destruction of once prosperous nations is what we are beginning to witness throughout the world, and it makes one ponder these questions…

If capitalism is responsible for the hardships upon individuals and businesses in society since it is directly practiced by them, then what system is practiced by Governments that are destroying the various cities, states, and nations? What system allows Government to determine what is done in society and how it will be accomplished? What system has Government in direct control of decisions, planning, and the allocation of resources? It is this system that will unleash destruction to such an extent as to impoverish citizens or at least severely lower their living standards. Identifying this detriment should be our greatest concern, and obviously it has nothing to do with capitalism since Governmental entities do not practice such. If people honestly believe capitalism has failed them, then the failure resulting from a Government directed society may just change their views once it is realized that their future has been sold down the river by politicians, and it is being done by promising a false utopia using the system of their preference that begins with an “S” and ends with an “ism.”

It is hard to think of anything more cruel or self-defeating than to destroy the spirit and ambition within a population. Promising equal results to all will certainly result in a race to the bottom for everyone because all incentive will be eliminated thus ensuring failure. The ambitious crowd will cease to strive and take risk while the apathetic crowd will never be motivated to venture into realizing any aspiration. For as unkind as it seems that there are some in society that have attained a disproportionate amount of abundance, it is even more unkind to extinguish all hope that the others may ascend to the same level of accomplishment. Notions of social justice sound utopian, but as often true of Government promises; they seldom deliver and create massive destruction as a result of their implementation. Having different and unequal results in society should be viewed as a gift that facilitates a better life for all of us. Allowing a system that rewards effort and accomplishment will rightly keep America’s arrow pointed up in the future, anything to the contrary will guarantee an outcome not even worthy of a dismal participation trophy.

Our Government produces nothing, they create nothing, they have no ability to manage anything, they are simply a distribution system that takes from one element in society and gives to another as well as themselves in the process. Putting more of our economy in their control is simply irrational because it will just subject it to more waste, fraud and corruption. For all the times that our society states that capitalism has failed us, we should take a good hard look for how much of that failure was at the hands of our Government. Capitalism is just an economic system, a system that is based on freedom and choices, it is not centrally controlled thus the freedom of decisions is reserved for the people. With that said, it should also have rules of behavior established and subsequently enforced, and it is here that our Government fails us at every turn. Think of it like watching a football game, nobody wants to see a game without rules or officiating, but they do expect the game to be played freely within the established structure of rules with no excessive intrusion aside from normal enforcement, our economy should be handled in the same manner. It should have the freedom of choice provided by capitalism within an established framework provided by a responsible Government. However, corruption has grown to the point that this “rulemaking and officiating” responsibility is done according to what favor is being repaid or how it benefits them personally. The Government is more interested in paying off cronies or buying favor from interest groups to retain power than they are of serving the nation’s interest. There have been many laws and regulations introduced on the books, but they become worthless if selectively enforced. For all the suffering brought about by this economic downturn, there are certainly laws and/or regulations that would have prevented the calamity, but they were ignored for some political convenience even if detrimental to the overall system. Seriously flawed legislation is constantly being passed that caters to politically connected entities, and expedience is surely its origination. There is no economic system in this world that can survive incessant political corruption, and capitalism is no different, but in the absence of this repulsive conduct it has the best chance for providing the greatest amount of prosperity and freedom to a nation.

Another thought that comes to mind is if we truly believed that capitalism is unsound and responsible for this economic tragedy, what will then explain the failures going forward now that the Government has further exerted its intrusive bureaucracy? Any future devastation will not be unleashed by capitalism as it should become obvious that there is a much greater vehicle of destruction undermining us, that being our corrupt Government. As expected, it is rising to the occasion with wasteful stimulus programs, a crushing national debt, rising unemployment, decreased tax revenues, subsidizing failure, withering real estate values etc. These ruinous outcomes are resulting from Government failures, and they are likely to continue as the same agendas are being pursued unabated in the customary tradition of corruption. The irony presented in all this is that only capitalism can solve these enormous issues of our time, but it requires the foundation of a Government with integrity and devoid of corruption.

Free market capitalism has in no way failed; it is still the preeminent economic system that provides the highest standard of living for everyone which explains why so many other nations are increasingly applying its practices. The failure being experienced is our nation’s lack of appetite for the ramifications of the capitalistic model. Unfortunately, it periodically requires a downturn or recession in order to consolidate and strengthen winning businesses while simultaneously purging the substandard ones. This is the often-touted creative destruction process and it is essential to allow the best to proceed forward. Our society has become intolerant to the process of failure particularly when large organizations are concerned thus giving rise to the “too big to fail” concept. We instead have accepted the Government’s intervention of propping up failed institutions rather than allowing for the clearing process of failure to occur. Capitalism will eliminate the inefficient and reward the successful without any hesitation through an effective market mechanism, and any intervention of that process only distorts and lengthens the suffering involved. It is this type of intrusion that historically turns recessions into depressions. We are currently experiencing a purging process and it is left to be seen what the outcome will be from our Government spending trillions of dollars in a futile attempt to circumvent this reality. The true market will prevail in the end despite intentions otherwise, for it is only a matter of when and how much damage will be created by obstructing the recognition of this basic truth. Capitalism is indeed alive and well when it is allowed to function freely, and it will bring the fastest and most economical solutions to society despite any associated distress from its often swift execution. For our Government to proclaim that capitalism has failed is akin to thinking that the weather has failed because it is raining, but we should in fact know it is both necessary and constructive. The role of allocating resources can not and will not ever be accomplished efficiently by politicians spending our money attempting to pick winners and losers for our alleged wellbeing, only capitalism can accomplish that.

Many in our nation see the free market as a failure with businesses as the oppressors and Government as the emancipators who will fight for the common man and bring freedom from tyranny. The absurdity is that people are so willing to trade our free market system with businesses that are mostly competent and eager to serve the people for the Government that is extremely incompetent and inefficient at serving anyone but themselves. Corruption occasionally surfaces within business, but it is always present with Government. There are businesses that serve themselves and the most influential of their organization at the expense of people, but the Government absolutely defines self-interest with all its decisions being made accordingly. With all the negative press that business has received, it is easy to forget that the overwhelming majority of them operate very honestly providing jobs and products people desire. They are being judged every day in the market with their products by consumers voting with their dollars. Their number one goal is to satisfy their customers by providing a product we are willing to purchase, and they must deliver that satisfaction or they cease as a going concern. On the other hand, our Government has no such worry. They continually operate in their own interest by systematically increasing their control and providing for their own expansion. Their concern for the people is secondary to that objective since they are comfortable with the knowledge that there are no consequences. Their survival is not dependent on the day to day judgments in the marketplace; they do not even have to provide a service that is beneficial. History shows that our population continues to apathetically reelect incumbents repetitively, thus there is no motivation for them to serve the people honestly over their own interest.

We should give some serious thought to the notion that our Government will provide anything but destruction and poverty. It is better to have more freedom in the hands of many people and businesses as opposed to our Government that we know is corrupt, incompetent and destructive. Businesses do possess power that can trigger corruption at times, but Government has absolute power and it is absolutely corrupt all the time. Why would we want to entrust our future to such an organization when we know its outcome? Having power and control dispersed throughout society will provide a stronger foundation for everyone as opposed to having the Government decide everything for its own benefit and pushing it on us. We need to wake up in this nation and stop waiting for someone else to make life easier for us because that is nothing more than a utopian dream.

Many prominent figures in our history had an obvious distrust for Government, in fact, our Founders wrote the Constitution with the thought in mind to bind the hands of Government. Any person that understands the true nature of Government will realize it is an extremely blunt instrument, so any public solutions should be taken with extreme caution to minimize the destruction that will certainly be unleashed. This is a concept understood and illustrated with these few selected quotes by the men that held the highest office within our Government.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
-George Washington

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of Government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
-Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the Government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
-Thomas Jefferson

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
-James Madison

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
-James Madison

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
-John Adams

A Government big enough to give you everything you want is a Government big enough to take from you everything you have.
-Gerald R. Ford

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.
-Ronald Reagan

How many of these quotes sound relevant to the Government we are witnessing today? With beliefs such as these from former Presidents, we should give some serious thought about why we believe Government can be relied upon to offer solutions to us as citizens; they have a terrible history of solving issues and a long history of creating them. If these men held such an obvious distrust in the Government’s nature and its abilities speaking from their executive positions, then why should we place our faith in this institution? All we have to do is seek the council of our own history to clearly see that this is indeed a foolish path to travel. America became a great nation because its Government minimized its own intrusion thereby allowing its individual citizens to prosper. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore with our invasive Government that is emboldened by public apathy which will undoubtedly have the opposite effect. As this continues to unfold, it will ensure that the race to the bottom is proceeding as warranted.

The belief that a nation’s greatness is unmatched and endless was undoubtedly the prominent outlook of former world empires as each was in the grips of their own demise. It is an agonizing thought that we appear to be traveling down the very same road to mediocrity. We have arrived to the point in our country where capitalism is no longer the favored economic system, instead our Government is pursuing a socialistic agenda as the remedy for our current struggles. The degree of this transformation can be debated incessantly although it is incrementally progressing by the day. The unfortunate aspect to this is that we can look around the world and realize that socialism is where all great nations or empires have gone to die. It is sad that we choose to ignore the lessons of these other nations by following their same path with the absurd thought that we will do it better.

We are living in an era that we should all mark in our minds because it will be the period that transforms America as we know it. Every facet of our existence and our beliefs are subject to infringement as a “new” America is being mandated while questions linger regarding if it represents the prevalent sentiment of our citizens or not. The policies being implemented on our behalf over the next few years will significantly alter America’s future for better or worse. It is not realistic to assume that if things go wrong we can always recover later because the changes are so monumental as to make a future recovery extremely difficult. The obliteration of our Constitution may well be at hand thus removing the prominent obstacle to paving the way for integrating our nation into a world Government. It seems doubtful that our citizens are really aware of the true magnitude of the policy proposals and the consequences on their daily lives, or even worse they do not care. Most are certainly going about their days oblivious to the changes being made that will affect their lives so dramatically, which is often the case preceding so many tragedies in this world’s history. Americans will indeed notice the shift in the nation once it infringes on their lifestyles and impedes their freedoms and choices, but the damage will be extensive by that point. An uninformed or apathetic public is the means being exploited to reshape the nation as our Government executes its perceived mandate of control and our silence is their affirmation. The thought of what we are becoming is terrifying, and to know it is resulting from our own lack of engagement is disgraceful.